The quarry is a Buildcraft 3 machine that is used to automatically mine out large areas. By default, it will mine out a 9x9 area with a frame of 11x11. However, this can be extended to a max of 62x62 mining area with a frame of 64x64 or shortened to a minimum of a 3x3 frame by using landmarks (only 3 are required). The quarry will dig through water down to bedrock; however, it will be stopped by lava; the best way to combat this is when your quarry has dug its first few layers is to put a water source block in one of the corners of the quarry. This will turn all lava into obsidian, allowing the quarry to continue mining. When first powered, the quarry will spawn a floating robot that destroys everything in the area of the quarry, and then it forms a structure of Frame that covers the corners of the area to be mined, then the drill appears. The quarry keeps the chunks that it is mining on constantly loaded.

Quarries are made very expensive due to GregTech, which makes them less efficient than a Mining Turtle. However with the maximum power and landmarks they are far more efficient than mining turtles, and also do not require the chunk to be loaded.

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The Quarry must be powered by one or more engines. Quarries have an internal buffer of energy, and require a few seconds to charge. Approximately 9MJ/t is enough to keep a quarry continuously running (without pausing between actions), but a quarry will use up to 32MJ/t at maximum speed (increased from 9MJ/t previously). It therefore takes 8 Combustion Engine (48MJ/t) running on fuel to move the quarry head at full speed of 5.2m/s and provide the additional energy of 60MJ for each block broken.

These values are determined as follows:

The quarry uses a minimum of 2MJ/t and a maximum of 32MJ/t to move its head continuously, and a flat 60MJ to break each block.

At the minimum energy usage it moves 0.11002blocks/tick (9.089ticks/block) therefore using an average of 6.6012MJ/t (60MJ/block*0.11002blocks/t).

Total power used is therefore the sum of the power used moving, and power used breaking blocks an is ~9MJ/t (2+6.6). Maximum energy usage uses 32MJ/t equating to a speed of 0.26m/t (26cm/tick). Average power usage per tick for the head to break blocks at max speed is therefore 15.6MJ/t (0.26blocks/t*60MJ/block), giving a maximum total usage of ~48MJ/t (32+15.6).

A quarry can be powered in a number of ways. The easiest way is 2 Stirling Engines placed right next to the quarry. The quarry's speed varies by how much power (MJ/t) is available to it. It can receive up to 100 MJ/t. One of the most popular ways of powering a quarry is by using an Electrical Engine connected to your base's EU power grid or connected to Solar Panels.

The quarry output can be sent to an Ore Processor which will automate the process of turning ore into ingots. This video is a step-by-step guide on how to build an ore processor using BuildCraft and IC2.

Land Marks can be used to define an operating area for the quarry. Simply place 3 landmarks on 3 of the 4 corners of the area you want to mine and then right click them to activate them. This limits the size of the quarry to 64 x 64 blocks. Once the landmarks are correctly activated the quarry can be placed outside the area (i.e. on the wooden blocks in the photo below) (It might help if you place the torches up straight)

Place a quarry only outside the defined area (i.e. on one of the wooden blocks)

It is also possible to define an area larger than 64 x 64 by placing multiple Land Marks in line, because each one has a range of 64 blocks. There is however a certain limit, at which the Quarry will say that the area is outside of chunk loading bounds.

Here is a video explaining the process, including changing the configuration files.

In older versions there is a bug (fixed in BC 3.4.2) where it is possible for quarries to delete bedrock. This happens when bedrock is in the operating area during the building stage. This glitch can be used to get into the Nether's upper void, where blocks can be placed, the area is perfectly flat and, due to bedrock's transparency, is also mob free.

A quarry is faster than a mining turtle in most cases, unless you count the initial loading phase. Turtles are limited to only working in loaded chunks, and get reset when the chunks get unloaded. Quarries are able to work in otherwise unloaded chunks and do not forget about their progress. Mining turtles are a great starting item as they are very cheap and still have quite a high ore yield. In overall it appears that quarries perfrom much better than turtles, however turtles are cheaper and you could obtain around 3 turtles with a similar resource cost to a quarry.

If a quarry is picked up with a Gravity Gun from the Gravity Gun mod, the quarry maintains its properties. Most importantly it maintains the frame position. It is therefore possible to have a quarry situated in your base, while frame and drill are digging in an area far away. However, in this case it will not keep the chunks in which the frame resides loaded, so an additional chunk loader is needed.

note: the top height from which the quarry starts mining stays dependent on the quarry block itself. If the quarry is displaced from its frame, as described above, this can cause the drill to move completely unattached to the frame.

This may also work for other buildcraft machines like the Filler and Builder , but this is not tested.

WARNING: If the game is restarted, the quarry recalculates the position of the frame and drill, causing this nice system to backfire and mine stuff in your base. Tread with causion.